At the UN, Georgia Speaks of Ethnic Cleansing While Russia Complains of Visas Denied by the U.S.

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, October 13 -- In the blizzard of words accompanying Friday's six-month extension of the UN's observer mission to Georgia, several strange factual disputes, some of them surreal, were left unresolved. Before the passage of the resolution, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin had said that a person he called the foreign minister of Abkhazia had been denied a visa to come to New York, and that the U.S. embassy in Moscow had tried to link granting the visa with Russia accepting changes to the draft resolution it had put forward.

            Inner City Press asked Ambassador Churkin, after the resolution's passage, if this individual might still be coming to New York to brief the Security Council in a so-called Arria formula meeting. No, Amb. Churkin said.

            Then will Russia complain to the Host County Committee of the UN General Assembly?

            Amb. Churkin said that yes, Russia would be filing such a complaint. Video here. Venezuela recently complained about the detention of its foreign minister at JFK airport, a complaint echoed by Sudan and supported by such countries as Mali and Belarus. Click here for Inner City Press' story, Axis of Airport.

UN and IDPs in Zugdidi

            Inner City Press asked U.S. Ambassador John Bolton to address Amb. Churkin's statement about this gambit by the U.S. embassy in Moscow. Video here. From the transcript provided by the U.S. mission:

Inner City Press: On Georgia, Ambassador Churkin said that the Abkhaz foreign ministry called him, a person from Abkhazia.  Was the U.S. embassy in Moscow didn't give him a visa in exchange for somehow changing the language of the resolution on Georgia -- is that your understanding of what happened? He said it right here.
Ambassador Bolton: I have -- yeah, you know, I have no idea what that's about.

            Sources tell Inner City Press, however, that not only had Amb. Churkin made his statement about the visa in a televised interview which the U.S. State Department presumably monitors, but also that the visa issue had been discussed in the Security Council consultations prior to Amb. Bolton's above-quoted answer.  This followed:

Inner City Press: And was there any linkage between the two issues, you think, for the U.S. or Russia, between the language of today's Georgia resolution and the North Korea resolution?

Ambassador Bolton: Certainly not for the United States.  I'll let others speak for themselves.

            Inner City Press asked Kofi Annan's spokesman if the UN had any reaction to Russia's allegation that the U.S. blocked this visa and tried to gain negotiating advantage in the Security Council. That sounds like a bilateral issue between the two countries, the spokesman answered. Video here.

            Inner City Press asked the spokeswoman for the General Assembly president what action has been taken on Venezuela's complaint, and to be told if and when Russia files a complaint. We'll see.

            On the Georgian side, the country's ambassador Irakli Alasania answered a half-dozen questions from Inner City Press, video here. Among other things Amb. Alasania said that attempts by a Permanent Five members whom he left unnamed to link the move toward independence of Kosovo to a similar status for Abkhazia are "troubling." He acknowledged that Javier Solana has spoken publicly about the linkage. Amb. Alasania repeated his call that the peacekeeping force in Georgia by transitioned from Russian troops to UN blue helmets.

            Amb. Alasania said that Georgia has raised the issue of the treatment of Georgian in Russia to the UN General Assembly's Third Committee. (Inner City Press has asked the spokeswoman for the GA President for an update on this.) He spoke of ethnic cleansing and military provocation, and disputed Russian Amb. Churkin's statement that the UN has found impermissible Georgian artillery in the Kodori Gorge.

            Amb. Alasania brought with him an individual he called the "Head of Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Georgia," Malkhaz Akishbaia. Inner City Press asked Mr. Akishbaia how he had gotten his visa to come. Amb. Alasania cut in to answer the question, that they hadn't had any problems. Mr. Akishbaia told Inner City Press that his government has relocated from Tblisi to the Kodori Gorge, with a staff of some 20 people. A Georgian mission staffer promised again to provide Inner City Press with evidence of the money laundering in the parts of Abkhazia over which Georgia has no control; we'll see.

At the UN, Deference to the Congo's Kabila and Tank-Sales to North Korea, of Slippery Eels and Sun Microsystems

Byline: Matthew R. Lee of Inner City Press at the UN

UNITED NATIONS, October 13 -- "If it's all night, it's all right." U.S. Ambassador Bolton said this phrase with relish to a gaggle of reporters at 6 p.m. on Friday.  While the reference was to the still-pending Security Council resolution response to North Korea's nuclear test six days ago, the night-right rhyme is from a lyric sung by the Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

            Heard on the grapevine is that Russia's opposition or delay springs from the inclusion of tanks in the list of weapons it could not sell to North Korea. A U.S. diplomat said Russia's opposition on Friday afternoon started out as technical, then became more substantive and intransigent. Amid reporters' questions about the draft resolution's provisions for searching North Korean ships and barring the sale to North Korea of armaments listed in the resolution's still not firm annex, no one asked for John Bolton's view on another James Brown lyric, "Say it loud, I'm black, I'm proud."

            A hour after being confirmed by the General Assembly as the next Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon held a 20-minute press conference. He took only six questions; it was not clear if any of the questions were answered. A question about Africa was left entirely unresponded-to. (See below in this Report.)

Ban Ki-Moon -- Slippery Eel or "Moves All The World"? (See below)

            So to at Kofi Annan's spokesman's noon briefing. In response to two questions about the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the spokesman said that the DRC is a sovereign nation, not run by the UN. From the transcript:

Inner City Press question:  There is criticism of the Kabila Government replacing two ministers with military personnel, the Minister of the Interior and the Governor of Kinshasa.  I know Mr. Gambari is there.  On that or the previous things I’ve asked you on Mr. Bemba’s helicopter, has he spoken on these issues?

 Spokesman:  The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a sovereign Government.  The helicopter is for the Congolese Government to settle.  It is my understanding that the helicopter was provided to Mr. Bemba in his capacity of Vice-President.  Obviously, Mr. [William Lacy] Swing has been trying to smooth the relations between Mr. Bemba and Mr. Kabila, but the issue of the helicopter is not one, as far as I understand, that we are getting directly involved in.  On the issue of ministers, once again, it is the prerogative of the Government to appoint its ministers.  The Congo is not a UN-administered territory. 

            This hasn't stopped the UN Secretariat and its envoy from routinely exhorting the Congolese to remain calm, to disarm, to eschew hate speech and the like. But when Joseph Kabila, three weeks before the run-off election, puts his military staffers in control of the Ministry of the Interior and the governorship of Kinshasa, the UN then has no comment, out of respect for sovereignty. Even on the open question of Mr. Kabila not having fulfilled his previous pledge to replace his opponent's destroyed helicopter, the UN has no comment. Thus even in a disarmed Kinshasa is ammunition given to those Congolese who allege that the UN has spent half a billion dollar merely to re-anoint Joseph Kabila.

            Speaking of money's ability to talk, Friday afternoon as part of a briefing about the UN Global Youth Leadership Summit, the high-tech company Sun Microsystem was presented as a UN partner, for sponsoring a web site for the summit. Inner City Press asked how Sun Microsystems was selected to partner with the UN, and whether Sun was asked, as Intel was recently asked by Inner City Press, what safeguards it has in place not to use conflict coltan from the Congo. Video here, from Minute 31:24.  Sun was described as a long-term UN partner. But there are more questions: Sun is known to have assisted for Internet blocking and surveillance both China and Myanmar. Global Compact, anyone?

[Transcription on Africa question and non-answer:

            In fairness to Ban Ki-Moon, after his 20-minute, six-question briefing in Conference Room 2, he met with Korean media and was more expansive. He explained that his nickname, Slippery Eel, can be transcribed in Chinese as "Moves All The World," a moniker he prefers. In his speech to the General Assembly, he spoke eloquently of modesty. He told reporters he plans to appoint a special envoy for North Korea.

            Another hotspot on which Inner City Press will be reporting more, shortly, is Georgia and its contested Abkhazia region. Watch this site, over the weekend.